Politicians psychological makeup...

[TruthAboveAll]

Interpersonal traits include glibness, superficial charm, a grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, and the manipulation of others.

They do possess certain personality traits that can be exploited, particularly their inherent narcissism, selfishness, and vanity.

...many political leaders display varying degrees of anger, feigned outrage and other behaviors. They also lack what most consider a "shame" mechanism.

Quite simply, ...many professional politicians must mimic what they believe, are appropriate responses to situations they face such as sadness, empathy, sympathy, and other human responses to outside stimuli.

The above statements are taken from an article appearing on examiner.com, by Jim Kouri. He is Law Enforcement Examiner with the National Association of Chiefs of Police.

The information doesn't appear to be based on any formal study. That does not necessarily disqualify his observations. And interesting, they are!

Utilizing information readily available in the DSM, the characteristics of the psychopath is utilized in investigating serial murders. Interesting, he notes in the article that politicians share much of the same characteristics.

For myself, I would think this could possibly be applied a bit more broadly - but none the less, I think I just might keep some of these things in mind when observing the behavior of politicians...

examiner.com piece link.